At the 50th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2024) in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Richard (Rick) Candell, Principal Investigator of Industrial Wireless Systems at NIST, presented a "NIST Perspective on Industrial Wireless for Operational Systems," detailing the challenges and advancements in wireless connectivity within industrial spaces. He addressed issues such as severe path loss, blockage, and multipath due to dense metallic environments, as well as non-network noise sources like welding and machinery. Dr. Candell highlighted the stringent data delivery requirements for operational applications in manufacturing, construction, and energy production, emphasizing the need for time-aware protocols and reliability enhancements through informational redundancy approaches as well as the need for spectrally aware control systems. He also discussed the IEEE P3388 working group's efforts in standardizing industrial wireless performance testing and outlined a forward path for the widespread adoption of wireless systems to enhance U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. This presentation underscored the importance of careful testing to ensure data delivery performance in operational systems and showcased NIST's research and standardization supporting the industrial wireless sector, including wireless time-sensitive networks and testbed activities. The announcement and abstract for Dr. Candell’s invited talk is found at https://www.iecon-2024.org/ies-industry-forum.